During assembling and processing electronic devices (such as smartphones, tablet computers and monitors), temporary bonding tapes are usually used to protect the exposed surfaces of the electronic devices from being scratched. However, tapes cannot easily conform to the 3D-shapes of the electronic devices, especially the corners of the outer shells.
Solvent-based or waterborne adhesives can offer another solution to form temporary protective films. However, traditional solvent based adhesives are not environmentally friendly. Furthermore, it takes time to evaporate the solvents during film formation, and thus it is not an efficient way of working.
For traditional waterborne adhesives, heat curing is typically required after applying the adhesives onto the surfaces of electronic devices. The heating process might cause unexpected damages to the sensitive electronic devices. Further, it also takes a long time to cure or to evaporate the water, thus the overall efficiency is relatively low and cannot meet the requirement of rapid assembling. Moreover, if the waterborne based adhesive is applied onto metal surfaces, vapour corrosion is a big concern.
Therefore, there is an ongoing need for developing a solvent free liquid adhesive suitable to form a temporary protective film for the surfaces of electronic devices during assembling or processing.